Living sustainability

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I’ve talked a bit about conservation before. One thing I’ve talked about very little is practical conservation. Conservation should be able to be a natural extension of a person’s life and society. Basically to me conservation means thee restoration of a healthy relationship between you and your environment. By environment I mean other organisms as well, as the physical and biological parts of an ecosystem are inexorably linked and the whole of it including humans is one complex unit. We as humans start living in a way which is counter to conservation goals when our resource use becomes excessive and our populations grow too large. One of the best things you can do for the environment is use less of virtually any and everything. Being a vegetarian uses fewer resources as it’s more efficient than feeding livestock grains or vegetables and then eating the livestock. Shopping at second-hand stores is also a way to lessen your usage of resources. One important way that some of my friends have limited their usage of resources is by producing their own food. Ari and Jeremy have a nice sized garden in the summer and have free range chickens in their yard for eggs. My friend Matt has outdone them though with a large greenhouse he made himself with raised hydroponic plant beds that are fertilized by waste from a fish pond. Matt also has chickens, ducks and a turkey for eggs and meat. Growing your own food lessens the use of fossil fuels for supplying you with your food as well as allows you to grow food in a sustainable and organic manner. It also makes you less dependent on others for food production and puts you in control of your own produce. It’s also a way to connect intellectually, physically and some would even say spiritually with your environment, to be more cognizant of being a small part of a great ecosystem. Below are some photos of Matt’s green house. You can read more about Matt’s gardening here.

A view of the fish pond that connects to the hydroponic beds on the left

This is a homemade heater/wood stove that keeps the greenhouse warm in the winter, especially at night.